﻿Birth & Postpartum Planning

If I don’t know my options, I don’t have any.~Diana Korte

The Birth Plan

Why is the Birth Plan so important?

Planning your birth experience is a important step in your pregnancy and birth journey, as you may already know. Communicating clearly with your support team and providers on your wishes and preferences for your birth is a key factor in achieving your ideal birth.

However,the actual reason the birth plan is so important is because it engenders your own thought process and education on your options in regards to your birth, and facilitates self-awareness around your feelings about your birth.Birth planning is mean to empower you as you make decisions about your birth experience.

Birth planning is a process that helps you educate yourself on your options regarding:

your birth environment

induction of labor

how you prefer to labor

monitoring

pain management

your support team

delivery

baby care

postpartum recovery

Once you have researched and explored your options (and before you have began creating your birth plan) it's important to take some time to explore your feelings about your birth--both positive and negative. When you think about your labor and birth, what feelings arise?

Do you have any fears or anxiety about any aspect of the experience?

Are you afraid of the idea of contractions?

Are you worried you may not be able to 'handle' a natural, unmedicated birth?

Are you concerned that you won't have the proper support during labor?

Do you have fears around having a Cesarean birth (either planned or emergency)?

Are you afraid that something may 'go wrong' during your birth?

Do you feel anxious about 'failing' on the idea of your ideal birth experience?

Do you have previous﻿ sexual or em﻿otional trauma or other triggers surrounding birth?

Are you worried you won't be a good mother?

Are you excited (and a little bit nervous!) to finally meet your baby?!

I really encourage you to take the time to get very clear on your feelings surrounding birth. Once you've done that, then you can begin the process of creating your birth plan with the education of what your options are, and the self-knowledge of what you need most during your birth experience.

It is also sometimes helpful to seek counsel to discuss any negative feelings or fears you may have, especially if you have a history of trauma. Talking through and processing your feelings, before your labor begins, can have a profoundly positive effect on your entire birth experience. If you'd like a referral for a licensed therapist, please ﻿contact me.

The Postpartum Plan

﻿Wait, what? What's a postpartum plan?﻿I get that a lot when I ask women if they have made a postpartum plan! During the journey of motherhood, so much planning goes into successful conception, a healthy pregnancy and a positive and smooth birth experience. What often gets overlooked or forgotten about entirely is the postpartum period. Many first time parents see the arrival of their long-awaited baby as the end of all the hard work of pregnancy and labor and now it's time to celebrate! While this is true, the arrival of your baby also begins a new process of healing, settling in, getting to know your baby and yourself as a mother, learning to breastfeed and adjusting to life with a newborn,

Most first time parents have read all the pregnancy and baby books, have taken the childbirth education and breastfeeding classes, have all the best baby gear, have a meticulous birth plan, and consider themselves ready to handle their new addition. Then the baby comes! All the loved ones and well wishers have gone, and new parents are left with exhaustion from birth, trying to figure out breastfeeding a baby who is hungry every two hours, a messy house, a pile of laundry (babies make an astonishing amount of laundry!),sleep deprivation, and trying to figure out when you have time to eat--and how long can one go without showering??? And all this with a birth that goes as planned! If the birth doesn't go as planned, if there are feeding difficulties, or additional children to care for, recovering from birth can be exponentially more challenging.

This is why planning for your postpartum is so important. Most first time parents don't realize the challenges of the postpartum period, nor how crucial it is to take this time to rest and recover. Postpartum planning can prepare you for the challenges of a new baby, as well as help you build a support system in the first few weeks while your family adjusts to a new rhythm and your body gets a chance to recover from the enormous task of pregnancy and birth.

﻿Where to begin?If you are a first time mom, I encourage you to begin planning your postpartum by talking to other moms you know about their postpartum experiences. These are some questions to ask:

What are some things you wish you would have done differently or had in the first few weeks postpartum?

What were the things you did or had during your postpartum that you felt made a positive difference for you?

What kind of support did you have (or wished you had) in the first couple weeks?

How did you feel physically after baby was born/ how long did it take you before you felt like 'yourself' again?

Did you have family around to help? If so, did you find your family to be actually helpful to you?

How did breastfeeding go for you? What were some challenges during learning to nurse/ things you wish you knew in the beginning?

Looking back, what would 'current you' say to 'brand new mom you' in those early weeks?

If you can, it's helpful to talk to more than one 'veteran' mom about her postpartum experience. Every birth and postpartum (and baby) is different, and getting this information from moms who've had a variety of postpartum experiences is invaluable.

Unlike your birth plan, your postpartum plan is not something you hand someone else and say 'this is what I want'. It's a guide for you to use as you navigate what you want your postpartum experience to be, and helps you organize your thoughts, preferences and resources in those early weeks.

Need Help Planning?

As a Virgo, and a mother of two small children, planning is central to my life! I love helping moms to be with planning a birth and postpartum experience that meets the needs of herself and her family, matches her unique personality, and empowers her and supports her in her most courageous and wonderful journey--motherhood!

I like to meet in person with moms and partners for an initial interview to get to know you and become familiar with your needs and desires (as well as your feelings) for your birth and postpartum experience. Utilizing extensive research, resources and information, I work with you to craft a birth and/or postpartum plan over the course of about two weeks that is uniquely yours, gives you the most support during your labor and birth, and helps you to thrive during your postpartum. Birth plans are visual, easy to understand (and provider-friendly!); postpartum plans are simple and provide referrals and resources that best fit your needs.

The whole point of woman-centered birth is the knowledge that a woman is the birth power source. She may need, and deserve, help, but in essence, she always had, currently has, and will have, the power. ~Heather McCue